Ducks' Perry searching for elusive goals

After leading the Ducks with 29 goals last season, despite missing the final 12 games because of a partially severed right quadriceps tendon, right wing Corey Perry expected big things this season.The Ducks did, too, having given Perry a five-year, $26.625 million contract on July 1, the day he had become a restricted free agent.

Entering a Friday night game at Ottawa, Perry has yet to score a goal and has just two assists. Like the club's other top forwards -- Teemu Selanne, Ryan Getzlaf, Chris Kunitz and Brendan Morrison -- Perry has struggled to create offense. And yet, Perry might have come within a combined two or three inches of notching the hat trick in Tuesday night's 3-2, shootout triumph over the TorontoMaple Leafs at the Air Canada Center.

At least he converted in the shootout, following up a goal from Selanne to clinch the victory, just the second in seven games this season for the beleaguered Ducks.

"We came away with two points, and that's what we came in here to do," Perry said.

The night could have been so much sweeter for Perry, a native of Peterborough, Ontario.

He had a glorious scoring chance 7½ minutes into the first period, firing a shot from the slot that struck Toronto goaltender Vesa Toskala in the facemask. Two minutes into the second period, Perry stole the puck along the right-wing boards, broke in alone on Toskala and had the goalie beaten, only to lose the puck on his patented toe-drag move before he could deposit it into an open net.

And then, with 45 seconds left in overtime, Perry took a two-on-one feed from Todd Marchant, but his shot from the left side clanged off the goal post on Toskala's glove side.

"He's had so many chances, so many opportunities," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "It would be something if the opportunities didn't present themselves from game to game, but they do. You have to stay with the program. That's what happens with goal-scorers. They get on streaks. He's on a low now, and we have to find a way to get him on a high."

Perry, one of those rare offensive talents who can score goals when seemingly no opening exists, sees it the same way.

"It was one of those games where you have your chances," he said. "You have to look at the positives. If you're getting chances, they're bound to go in."

Perry, who matched Selanne with a team-high four shots on goal against the Leafs, borrowed one of the Finnish Flash's priceless analogies on goal scoring after the two had come through in the shootout.

"The ketchup bottle is open, hopefully, and we can just keep pouring it out," Perry said.

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